Santa Clarita residents transformed recycling bins into works of art and displayed them alongside the environmental services booth at the city’s annual Earth Arbor Day Festival on April 12 to be judged by a panel of three city staff members and festival attendees.

“We wanted to promote recycling, and one way to do that was to bring more attention to the environmental services booth,” said Mark Patti, city of Santa Clarita’s project development coordinator. “It’s also fun to do and gets people participating.”

Votes were cast based on five categories: Grand Prize, Most Creative, Best Local Flair, Best Green Theme and Fan Favorite, city officials said.

The “cArt aRt” competition is designed to raise awareness about recycling by encouraging residents to get creative with trash carts, decorating them with paint, art supplies and recycled items, city officials said.

The contest is held as part of the city’s annual Earth Arbor Day Festival, which features eco-giveaways, tips and tools to help Santa Clarita residents “go green” in their daily lives.

“We’re always looking for the creativity of the public and having fun with the event,” Patti said. “This is the third time we’ve done the competition, so it was really cool to continue it.”

About Melissa Lampert

Melissa became a staff writer at KHTS AM-1220 following her internship in the newsroom. She has been writing news and feature stories for the KHTS website since February 2014. Melissa is also a part-time staff writer at the Santa Clarita Gazette weekly newspaper and Canyon Country Magazine. After receiving her bachelor's degree in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Melissa moved back to Santa Clarita to begin her professional writing career. She has published feature stories in "The Signal" newspaper and College of the Canyons' "Cougar News" and formerly worked as a freelance animal welfare writer for an online publication. She recently finished writing her first fiction novel and hopes to publish it someday.

KHTS AM 1220

As Santa Clarita’s only local radio station, KHTS mixes in a combination of news, traffic, sports, along with your favorite adult contemporary hits by artists such as Rob Thomas, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Maroon 5. KHTS is a vibrant member of the Santa Clarita community. Its broadcast signal reaches all of the Santa Clarita Valley and parts of the high desert communities located in the Antelope Valley. The station streams its talk shows over the web, reaching a potentially worldwide audience.